Rosewood – On the endangered List

At Naya, our brand essence revolves around safe formulations using only plant ingredients and care for the environment. As we celebrate Earth Day today, we’d like to share some of our thinking behind what ‘care for the environment’ means in relation to the ingredients we use.

Needless to say, there are many plant ingredients that can be used in beauty products. Common ones that we use such as sunflower, grapeseed, sweet almond and camomile are not in danger of being over-harvested. Cacay Oil, our star ingredient, is wildly harvested and we’re working directly with farmers to ensure that not only are more cacay trees being planted but that growth and harvesting are sustainable. We only use ingredients that are not threatened nor on the CITES list.

Rosewood oil was hot topic last year when Young Living Essential Oils pleaded guilty to illegal trafficking. In recent years, there has been an increase in demand for Rosewood, particularly from the Brazilian Rainforest, Madagascar (also called the Ivory of the Forest), India and Indonesia.Rosewood is prized for producing beautiful musical instruments and furniture. Rosewood essential oil is highly valued for its fragrance and linalool, and can be found in numerous beauty products including perfume. The move by the UN CITES in 2016 to put it on the endangered list was desperately needed. “The importance of protecting the entire Dalbergia genus of rosewood is that criminals can no longer pass off illegal rosewood as one of the previously unprotected species, “Officials have great difficulty in distinguishing between species,” said Guatemala’s delegate to Cites. “It is very difficult for people who are not experts, and even sometimes for the experts themselves.” (Guardian, 2017)

While it is our responsibility to formulate safe products, it is also our responsibility to be aware and have knowledge of what ingredients can and cannot be used to foster social and environmental benefit.

Many companies still use Rosewood in their formulations and we can’t deny its beauty. However there are many other oils that are as good as Rosewood and we urge you to make a conscious decision when choosing which beauty product to use.

Naya

Naya’s products are made with love and care in Germany using Green Technology. This means we use only responsibly sourced and pure bioactive ingredients. Our formulations restore, rebalance and protect the skin from within, and work to boost the skin’s inherent abilities to repair itself, grow healthy cells and combat environmental and internal stressors.